Christine
by bmitw
Summary: Entry in Tricky Raven's "A Haunting in Forks" contest and winner of the Candy Corn Award, joint winner of the Cult Classic Award. When a good red truck goes bad, life in La Push will never be the same again. Jacob/Christine. AU


DISCLAIMER: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

RATING: M Horror, character death.

PAIRING: Jacob/Christine

Thanks to feebes86 and Mrstrentreznor for betaing and pre-reading this story.

**2006**

**ChristinePOV**

Jacob knocked on the door of Charlie Swan's house. He used to think of it as Bella's house, but Bella didn't live there anymore. She ate (sparingly) and slept there, but nothing that she did could be classified as living; since that frozen fuck had left Forks and Bella behind, she'd become catatonic.

I knew I should have had a better attitude to an undead human; after all I was an undead car, but I knew he didn't like me. How could he, he was a Volvo driver.

Jake and his father Billy had owned me for years; they'd sold me to Charlie for a pittance so that Bella would have a truck to drive to school each day. But since Bella had gone into her shell, Charlie didn't trust her to drive any more, and so he took her to and from school himself.

This left me as a rusting hulk of 1950s metal parked in front of their house, going nowhere fast. And left Jake without the girl he wanted most in the world. So he decided to come and rescue me; to spend his time with me and not her. I loved that boy!

He waited quietly for someone to answer the door. Eventually Charlie came outside and spoke to him; whispering lest Bella hear what they were saying.

"Glad you've come to take the truck back off my hands. No, you don't have to pay me for it; you're doing me a favor. It breaks my heart to see it sitting here; all it does is remind me of what I've lost. I don't think Bella will get over this."

"No probs Chief Swan. I'm going to restore her; by the time I've finished she'll be in mint condition."

"She?" Charlie quirked an eyebrow at Jake.

"Christine. She's always been known as that, since before even we bought her. These old girls have to have a name I guess."

Charlie pulled the keys out of his pocket and handed them over. I was so excited; finally, after months of waiting for some action, Jake was going to take me home to La Push. I couldn't wait for him to start repairing me so I could look new again.

I was worried about my battery, but I checked it and gave it a bit of a tweak. I'd be damned if my escape was going to be spoiled by stupid mechanical problems; that stuff was for other rides. Then, after Jake had put the key in the ignition and turned me on, I sprung into life, purring like a contented cat all the way back to the Black house on the Rez.

Jake seemed surprised that I'd run so well, but I wanted to make him proud; I didn't want him to be ashamed of his rusty old truck. To celebrate our reunion I played "Pledging My Love" on the stereo for him. I wanted him to know that I would be loyal and steadfast.

There was no room for me at the front of the house, so Jake parked me in a shed he had. I didn't care; I'd be protected from the weather. He got out of the cabin, patted me on the bonnet and said "Well Christine my girl, tomorrow I'm gonna get started on fixing you up. See you then, sweetheart."

I couldn't fire up my engine again, Jake might find that strange, but I blinked my headlights on and off to show him that I was pleased. And then I went to sleep.

The next morning Jake came out to the garage in his overalls, and started to work on me. I was so excited I tooted my horn, and he hit his head on my undercarriage from the noise. I must remember not to do that again.

He'd bought some beautiful cherry red auto paint and lots of chrome parts to replace all my rusty bits. I just knew I'd look wonderful when he was finished.

While he was working some other guys showed up to see what he was doing. Their names were Embry and Quil. They were okay I guess, a bit dorky but they were nice about me.

It was that gang that I didn't like. They hung around in shorts and no shirts, and gave Jake strange looks like they were expecting him to do something, be with them or whatever. As if? Jake was MINE.

After a few weeks, the job was done. I was beautiful, and Jake loved me. He decided to take me for a run along the Rez roads, and into Forks and back. While we were driving I saw a wolf running through the forest; large and black and mean-looking.

Without warning, he shot across the road in front of me. Jake slammed on the brakes, but it was too late. I hit the enormous creature, and it messed up my chrome and hood really badly. Then it ran off into the forest on the other side of the road.

Jake was angry, but he didn't seem too worried that he'd hurt the wolf. And then he said something strange; he yelled out "Watch where you're going Sam! You messed up Christine's bodywork you douche!"

Sam? Did he mean the Sam who lived on the Rez? He was a human, not a wolf. But I was pissed too; all that work and now I was dented. Well, we'd see about that.

Jake drove me home, back into the shed. He patted me and said "I'm so sorry Christine. Sam didn't need to run in front of you like that; he must have done it on purpose. When I catch up with him I'll make him pay, even if he is the leader of that gang and I'm just a kid."

My engine was idling, and I purred again with delight. It wasn't much, but he got his polishing cloth out and buffed me up as nicely as he could before covering me and going to bed.

I wanted to be beautiful again. So while he was asleep I concentrated really hard and popped all of the dents out one by one. The scratches were gone from the polishing. Before too long I was back the way I'd been.

I smiled; Jake would be so pleased when he woke and saw that I'd made myself all better.

The next morning he came out to my shed, uncovered me and did a double take. Then he grinned evilly, and walked up and down both sides of me, stroking my panels and admiring my fenders. He put his head on my hood and observed "I don't know how you did that girl, but you're looking better than ever. Now what's say we go and pay Sam a visit?"

He jumped into the driver's seat, started me up and headed out to Sam's place. I wanted him to get all fired up on the way there so I played some of my best music; "_Great Balls of Fire"_ and "_Mack the_ _Knife"_.

As we drew closer to Sam Uley and Emily Young's house, I saw Emily out front weeding her garden. That gave me an idea; when Sam the wolf had run across the road in front of me he'd hardly been hurt at all. And I didn't know if I could hurt him as a human either. But I could go for Emily, and I'd either get her or get Sam if he tried to protect her. I couldn't lose.

I took over the steering, brakes and accelerator from Jake. He tried as hard as he could to get control back from me but I wouldn't let him, and then he seemed to just relax, sit back and let me do my job. I pointed myself straight at Emily, revving my engine and flooring the throttle. She heard the noise and looked up; but it was too late for her to get out of the way. After all she was only human.

She screamed; and Sam came running out of the house. He phased, and jumped in front of Emily, knocking her out of the way. Damn. I barreled forward, still at full throttle, and hit him, pushing him backwards and pinning him against the wall.

I could hear the cracking noises made as his bones broke, and then watched as he resumed his human form and lay sprawled on the ground, his bones knitting back together again in ways that they were never meant to. There was no Carlisle Cullen to fix him; he'd be crippled for life.

I smiled to myself; that'd teach him to give me a fender bender. I was Christine, and you didn't do that to me.

Jake got out and began to walk over to Sam. Before he'd gone very far the rest of Sam's gang arrived on the scene; they started pushing and shoving him, yelling at him like he'd done something bad.

"What didya do that for Black? You've hurt Sam and you coulda killed Emily, what's with you? Or can't you drive that heap of scrap metal?"

Jake was going to cave into them like the weedy kid he was, but that wasn't gonna happen. I had my mojo, and I gave him some. He straightened himself up to his full height and swaggered over to Sam and Emily.

"Sam knows what this is about. This is about him wolfing out yesterday and launching himself at Christine and denting her. I don't like it when someone damages my truck."

Paul looked Jake up and down and sneered "Well if Sam did so much damage to your truck, why does it look like brand new then?"

"I fixed it overnight." Jake was evasive, but he stuck his chin out and looked Paul in the eye, daring him to challenge him again.

"Whatever. You'd think that car was a girl, what with the amount of time and attention you give to it. Me, I'd rather fuck a real girl."

Nuh uh. You didn't say that about Jake, and you didn't say that about me. I made a mental note to deal with Paul at a later date. Some carbon monoxide maybe; that was one of my favorites.

Jake drove me home, patting me on the dashboard and musing about the little visit we'd just had.

"You know Christine I was going to go there to talk to Sam, but I think that I liked your solution better. That guy is scum, just like his deadbeat Dad, and he had no business knocking you around. I feel much better now."

I was so happy that I'd pleased my master, so on the way home I played him some more music, "_I Only Have Eyes For You_", to show him my devotion. If he minded that I only played songs from the fifties he never said, but I was an old-fashioned girl, I didn't hold with that modern stuff.

After he'd parked me in the shed again and covered me, I drifted off to sleep, content with my day's work and secure in the love of my Jake.

And then about three or four hours later I was rudely awakened by some boys coming into the shed, tiptoeing, but tripping over things on the floor and cursing, then shushing each other. What were they here for?

I wasn't going to let them steal me; if they tried to hotwire me and drive away, I would just stay in park and not let go of the brakes. That'd show them.

But they didn't try to take me away. They came armed with hammers, knives and baseball bats. And they beat me up. They went all around me, belting my panels in, smashing windows, slashing my tires and seats, and ripping instruments out of my dash.

One of the motherfuckers even climbed inside the cabin and pissed on my upholstery. I wanted to cry; I was ugly and destroyed and Jake wouldn't love me anymore.

I thought about trying to fix myself but really, what was the point? I sagged onto my flat tires and brooded. If I ever got over this people would die. I'd make certain of it this time, wolf or no wolf.

I wondered where Jake was, why hadn't he heard anything?

I got my answer the next morning when he staggered out to the shed to greet me. He looked disheveled, and had a black eye. While on the way to deal with me, someone had crept into his bedroom and knocked him out cold. They were wolves, and I thought he might be one day, but he wasn't yet and he was no match for them.

The bastards had covered me up again after they'd done their dirty work; now Jake uncovered me.

He staggered backwards, shocked at the way I looked.

"Christine! Girl, what happened to you? Wait, I think I KNOW what happened to you; the same thing that happened to me. Well don't worry sweetheart, I'll fix you back as good as new and then we'll get the assholes who did this to you."

I tried to kick my engine over so I could purr for him, purr for my master, but all that came out was a sick spluttering cough. I shut myself back down again, defeated. How could he fix me this time?

He went back inside the house; I heard him showering and eating some breakfast, chatting to his father Billy as he ate.

He borrowed a car from somewhere; I heard it start up and was instantly jealous. But I tried to tell myself, he needed to go and get parts and he was doing it for us. The stereo was gone; they'd ripped it out, so I had no music, just the thoughts of good times and my plans for revenge to keep me company.

Eventually Jake returned and he had some more parts and some paint. He even had some new seats to put inside my cabin. I honked my horn with glee, at last I could get well again.

He worked all day on me, and all night and all of the following day. He wasn't able to do a perfect job, but it was a start, and I could take it from here. When he went to bed on the second night, I went to work.

I smoothed out the panels that were still a bit dented, plumped out the scratches, and made myself shine, all cherry red and chrome and back to normal. Even my seats were lovely; Jake had found some nice leather ones at a wreckers, as well as a radio just like the original one I had back when I was new.

I was so happy with the result that I played "_Shout_", but I kept the volume down low; Jake needed his sleep. Tomorrow we had some more work to do, tomorrow Christine was going to rule the Rez.

I'd been thinking about what I was going to do; how I was going to exact my revenge on those losers. It would be hard, but the more I thought about it the more I thought I should gas them. But how to get them in my cabin was the thing.

Sam was stuffed; he'd never run again. But I needed to work out what to do with the rest of the gang; Paul and Jared. Maybe I could work on Jake, convince him to let the pack take me for a drive. All I needed to do was to get them in the cabin, play them a nice lullaby, and bye-bye boys.

I knew Jake wanted to go round to Emily's and punch some heads in. But until he phased he wouldn't have the strength. And I didn't want him to phase, if he did he'd be just like THEM and I'd lose him again.

Jake drove me to the cliff top where the gang was known to go cliff-diving; he'd heard that they were going to be there with their imprints and girlfriends for a picnic. At last, I had my opening.

I was going to be conciliatory; persuade Jake to let the others get into my cabin. I broke one of my strictest rules and played a song from the, ugh, sixties. "_Drive My Car_" was just the thing to get some takers, even if it was the Beatles.

It was okay, I saved my best songs for Jake anyway.

He drove up the hill, and came to a stop on the cliff top about fifty yards from the edge. The girls all crowded round to take a look at me; they didn't know I'd been wrecked just a few days ago.

The guys were incredulous; you could see the looks they were exchanging. They couldn't believe that it was possible for me to just bounce back to how I was.

Well you better believe it fellas, Christine was baaacckkk.

Jake got out of the driver's side door. "Seen a ghost guys? You've seen my truck before, why the shocked looks? Unless of course you're the jackasses who came into my garage the other night and trashed Christine. You'd better watch out; she knows who you are."

As usual, Paul was the one to challenge Jake. "She? She knows? She is a TRUCK, Jake, what is with you? But yeah, I was in your shed and so was Jared, we figured some payback was in order for what you did to our Al-Sam."

Jake just smirked. "Well Christine's body is all fixed now, as good as new if not better. If you don't believe me you're welcome to take a look inside the cabin as well."

I started up my engine and gave it my best, most enticing purr. Paul climbed into the driver's side and Jared into the passenger's side. The windows were down, Jake liked to drive with his arm hanging out of the door, but I could fix that.

Quietly, surreptitiously, I rolled my windows up again. And then I took a big deep breath and pushed those nasty carbon monoxide fumes from my exhaust back into the cabin. Those fumes were unpleasant, but a girl had to do what a girl had to do.

Hot damn. The locks were up. Paul and Jared had just noticed, and were trying to open the doors to get out. Tut, tut. I pushed the locks down and held them down, straining against the pressure of wolfy fingers trying to lift them up again.

Just a little longer...they were getting foggy, they hadn't thought yet to bash my doors out, and in just a moment they wouldn't be able to...I pumped some more gas in and they slumped forwards in their seats, unconscious.

That was when the others noticed there was something wrong. The girls tried to open the car doors from the outside, but I held firm. Sorry sweethearts, but that's how I roll.

Jake leaned up against a tree. At first he seemed unconcerned about what was happening but then, as the girls went to him, grabbing his arm and shaking it, he seemed to change in front of my eyes.

It was too much; I couldn't gas these bastards and weave my spell on Jake at the same time. Maybe in killing someone I had gone too far; maybe he didn't really love me.

I wanted to die.

Jake seemed to swell in front of me, growing larger and hotter. He didn't phase, he held himself back, but he ran to my side and ripped the door open.

Paul fell out; it was too late, he was dead. Jared was gone too. Job done, but what was Jake going to do?

He went around to the other side, opened the door, and pulled Jared out. Then he went back around, got in, and started my engine.

He planted his foot, where was he going? I tried to push back or apply the brakes but this time he had the strength and will to defeat me.

He drove me towards the edge of the cliff at full speed...


End file.
